


Newton's Cradle

by ABitNotGoodieBag



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, IronDad and SpiderSon, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Peter is a Little Shit, Tony is a little shit, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22652128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ABitNotGoodieBag/pseuds/ABitNotGoodieBag
Summary: Steve asks where his shield is, Peter tells him.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 803
Collections: Team Iron Man, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Newton's Cradle

Working in the lab with Mr. Stark was always Peter’s favorite thing. He’d never tell Ned, but Mr. Stark’s lab beat putting together the legacy Millenium Falcon Mr. Stark had gotten him for Christmas. The fact that he didn’t talk down to or patronize Peter like other adults really made the teenager happy.

When FRIDAY alerted them that Mr. Rogers ( _never_ Captain again. Not after what he did to Mr. Stark) was requesting access to the lab they were in, Mr. Stark instructed the AI to refuse.

Peter rolled his eyes at the disgraced Avenger’s audacity. He looked at Mr. Stark as if to say ‘ _This guy, am I right?_ ’ and was met with a fond smile. “I still can’t believe President Ellis pardoned them. Half of them act like you owe them something, when they’re the ones who decided that they knew better than half of the United Nations.”

His mentor’s smile dimmed a bit, remembering exactly what he went through at the hands of his former friends. Sure, to the public, the Avengers were back together, but there would never be a joint mission with Captain America, Black Widow, the Hulk and Iron Man again. Hawkeye had decided to retire at the insistence of the President and Scott Lang was still on house arrest, but Natasha Romanoff, Steve Rogers, and Sam Wilson were still permitted to act as Avengers.

Of the ‘rogue avengers’ as they were dubbed by Twitter, Peter liked Sam best. He wasn’t rude to Mr. Stark and didn’t ignore Peter, even though Peter didn’t trust him enough to reveal his identity. Sam didn’t trigger his Spidey sense and was always ready to join Peter in whatever game he was playing during his rare free time at the compound. He also knew that Mr. Rhodey liked Sam despite all of his mistakes, so he got points for that too.

Peter wished he could meet Dr. Banner, but Mr. Stark (along with half a dozen government agencies) were unable to locate him. All they could piece together is that the quinjet he flew off in was traced to Central America and at it’s last known location, there was evidence of the bifrost. Mr. Stark figured that Bruce and Thor would reappear in their own time (Peter wholeheartedly agreed) and kept the news of the quinjet’s disappearance quiet.

“Well, kid, the world is not always the way you think it should be. All we can do is the best with what we’ve been given.”

Peter’s disgruntled face at Mr. Stark’s statement made the man chuckle.

“Oh no, I’m turning into one of those terrible PSAs, aren’t I? Let’s go blow something up and avoid your homework.” Mr. Stark laughed and the small crows feet around his eyes made him appear more human than his imposing press persona led people to believe. “Or perhaps…” He trailed off. “I’ve been working on something special for you, it just may be time for you to see it and start tinkering with it to really make it yours.” Mr. Stark reached into one of his deep drawers and pulled out a glass canister full of swirling nanobots, setting it down with a flourish.

Peter leaned forward excitedly, resting his elbows on the cold metal work surface. The nanobots were swirling around, but every few seconds he could see the form of a red, blue, and gold suit. “Mr. Stark is this-- Did you make me a suit like yours?” Peter was speechless. He knew Mr. Stark cared about him in his own way, but this was huge. The only other person with a suit even remotely like Mr. Stark’s was Col. Rhodes and they practically grew up together! Peter was just some kid from Queens.

Mr. Stark grinned, “Sure is! It’s still got Karen in it as your co-pilot-”

“Boss, Mr. Rogers is not heeding your request to leave the area.” FRIDAY interrupted them.

Mr. Stark rolled his eyes and made to stand up. “Welp, let me-”

Mr. Stark didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence, because Mr. Rogers chose that very moment to punch through the door and storm inside the lab.

Peter froze, not knowing what to do since he didn’t have his spider-suit on and no one knew his secret identity. For all the Avengers knew, Peter Parker was an intern at SI and that was the way he liked it. Mr. Stark had already tapped on his reactor activating the brand new, not quite finished testing Mark L armor that had not yet been revealed to the world.

Mr. Stark aimed his repulsor straight at Rogers and jerked his head slightly, indicating that Peter should duck behind the worktop. Peter happily complied as he watched the two men stare each other down.

Tony retracted his helmet, but didn’t lower his arm. “Is there a particularly good reason that you’ve ignored requests from both me _and_ FRIDAY to fuck off?”

“This is ridiculous, Tony. You’ve had your fun, but I’m gonna need my shield back.” Rogers said, his voice oozing condescension.

“I was under the impression that T’Challa provided you with perfectly good shields.” Mr. Stark said in the same tone.

“I want _my_ shield, Stark.” Rogers spit out from gritted teeth.

“You have _your_ shields, Rogers. T’Challa gave them to you, didn’t he?” Mr. Stark replied.

Rogers dropped into an aggressive stance and Mr. Stark rolled his eyes. “Tony, I’m not leaving this room without my shield.”

“That’s unfortunate.” Tony said. “Because you definitely are not getting the shield back. It never belonged to you in the first place and it’s none of your fucking business where it is now.”

Rogers looked like he was about to launch himself at Mr. Stark and Peter couldn’t stay quiet anymore. “Clacky balls!” He shouted as he burst out of his hiding place. “It was made into clacky balls.” Peter pointed to the Newton’s Pendulum on the desk in the back of the room. Ten identical chrome spheres were suspended in an equally gleaming frame.

Rogers’ mouth snapped shut as he stared, flabbergasted, at the desk toy.

Mr. Stark’s giggle cut through the tense silence. “Newton’s Cradle, Peter!” He said as he schooled his features back to polite indifference. “Clacky balls, honestly. What are they teaching you kids nowadays?”

“Are you telling me that you’ve turned the world’s rarest, most valuable resource into-” Rogers sighs. “Clacky balls? For a desk you barely use?”

Mr. Stark shrugged. “I didn’t say it, the kid did. I said it was none of your fucking business what I did with something that doesn’t belong to you.”

“Come on, Tony. We both know Howard wanted me to have that shield. He handed it to me personally.”

“Yes. He did give it to you. You were the one chosen by your country to be it’s hope. A country that later asked for a little accountability, but that’s not something you’re a big fan of, is it?” Tony sounded furious. “On top of snubbing the US, you were ready to take on the entire world to protect the man who killed him. Which, by the way, dick move for keeping that little nugget to yourself. Zemo’s plan was dumb as all get out, but thanks to you, he definitely broke up the boy band. For good.”

Rogers glanced at Peter, his cheeks coloring. Mr. Stark noticed and shook his head in contempt. “Noooope. You seriously do _not_ get to be ashamed right now. Not when you and your idiots walk around here like you did us some favor by coming back.” Tony rolled his eyes. 

“You treat us like criminals, Tony. You have to see it from our point of view. The UN can’t tell us how to protect the world, they’ll just use us as political pawns and attack dogs.” Rogers explanation sounded weak and Peter couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“You were pardoned. In order to be pardoned, one first has to commit a crime.” Tony quipped and Rogers clenched his jaw. “Also, you’ve committed another one, breaking into my lab, congratulations. Are you going for a streak?”

“Mr. Stark, he’s not worth it. FRIDAY, can you alert someone that we have a cleanup on aisle 4?” Peter couldn’t help the slight dig.

Rogers, realizing that he would not, in fact, be getting his old shield back slumped in on himself and turned away. “Things didn’t have to be this way, Tony.” He said sadly as he made to leave.

“Fuck off, Rogers.” Tony replied.

Peter watched him go until he rounded a corner and then picked up the busted door, leaning it against it’s frame. “I’m sorry I told Rogers about the clacky balls, but I couldn’t just stand by if he attacked you.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong kid, I let him push my buttons as usual.” Mr. Stark ruffled Peter’s hair affectionately. “Besides, I didn’t use all of the vibranium for the Pendulum, that was just the leftovers. The bulk of it was made into our housing units. This Iron Spider is the Bugatti of nanosuits. T’Challa _wishes_ his kitty outfit was as cool as ours.”

Peter laughed and soon they forgot all about Rogers as they spent the rest of the afternoon tinkering with the Iron Spider.

**Author's Note:**

> Tony Stark Bingo square filled: Vibranium


End file.
